Hotel California
by Sunless Skies
Summary: When Hades imprisons Percy in the Underworld he's actually stuck there. Four years with only Nico for company. Slash, Percy/Nico, Percico.


**Hotel California **

**Summary: When Hades imprisons Percy in the Underworld he's actually stuck there. Four years with only Nico for company. **

**Pairings: Percico, Percabeth**

**Warnings: Imprisonment, mild Stockholm's Syndrome, dubcon**

**A.N: Once I figure out what this is or how it was spawned I'll let you guys know. **

* * *

_"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell_

* * *

Percy is about to go insane. Now he has no idea why people in asylums are kept in solitary confinement in all white rooms, because if it was driving him crazy, what would it do to those that already were? Percy sighs, he has been spending too much time with Annabeth if this is what he's thinking about. And then he feels a pang of loneliness and fear.

_Annabeth _

He takes a deep breath and sits down on the bed. He closes his eyes to get away from the blinding white of the walls and tries to pretend that he's at home, or Camp Half-blood or anywhere, anywhere but where he is.

* * *

He hates this. He hates the fact that he's trapped here. He hates the fact that he's lost track of time down here in his little white cell while his friends wage a war in the land of the living. He hates Hades for keeping him here. He hates his dad for doing nothing to free him. He hates Nico for just going along with his dad's ridiculous plans for his own personal gain and glory. And most of all, Percy hates himself for not being smart or strong enough to escape.

* * *

"Hey," Nico says one day after shadow-traveling into Percy's cell and nearly scaring the piss out of him.

"What the fuck are you doing here," Percy blurts out. He's been alone for so long, he doesn't know how long but it feels like an eternity and the boy who's the reason he is a prisoner is not whom he wants to see.

"Coming to see you," Nico says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, "Solitude's bad enough for me, and I enjoy isolation. I suspect it's driving you insane."

"Go away," Percy grumbles, though he can't bring himself to mean it. Nico plops himself down next to Percy on his bed. Percy rolls his eyes.

"Fine," he says, "Stay. Whatever. Just next time bring a fucking game or something."

* * *

"Wanna play?" Nico asks Percy one day after he shadowed-traveled into Percy's cell, grasping a deck of Mythomagic cards in one hand and a set of dice in the other.

Percy glared at him and didn't grace his question with a response.

"Do you have anything better to do?" Nico asks, and Percy can't answer that.

"I did bring a game this time," Nico says and Percy isn't sure if it's simple teasing or downright mocking. He grumbles something under his breath, but allows Nico to set up the card game.

"So how do you play this stupid game?" Percy asks. Nico sends him a slight grin and Percy's confused, but the slightest bit happy. He's not sure that he's actually seen Nico smile since Bianca's death.

* * *

"I hate you," Percy says one day, all his built up anger and resentment and spite slipping into his tone, making it as toxic as his words "I hate you so much."

"I know," Nico says his voice sad but resigned.

Then, with more confidence he says, "But I'm all you've got." Percy's not actually sure that he can argue with that.

* * *

"I'll play my Poseidon," says Percy, placing his card to face Nico's.

"You can't play an Olympian against a Primordial!" Nico says, pointing to his Gaea card, "That's suicide!"

"Well, I like Poseidon," Percy grumbles, slightly insulted Nico had implied his father wasn't powerful enough.

"At least play Oceanus or something," Nico says, "Percy, you've got to at least try." Percy gives up his hopes of beating Nico's Gaea with his Poseidon.

"Fine," Percy says with a smirk as he sets down a Tartarus card.

"Oo," says Nico, "Good play." Percy laughs lightly and they continue playing their game, laughing loudly and occasionally brushing hands.

* * *

Percy isn't sure when, but at some point, Nico stops being the cute little kid that also functions as the slightly annoying thorn in his side. At some point Nico gets older and he starts sending off signals a hell of a lot stronger than he would have if he simply looked at Percy as an "older brother". Percy doesn't find himself minding too terribly.

Maybe it's because Nico is and has been his only human contact for however the fuck long he's been stuck in the Underworld, but he's gotten to the point where he actually really likes the kid, more than he should. Even though Nico doesn't quite look it anymore he's still thirteen (fourteen?) Percy doesn't even know anymore but he knows that he's four years older and that it's sick. It's sick for one to be lusting after a kid that's four years younger than him, but it's also sick to let one's dad keep someone prisoner, so Percy finds himself minding his own perversion less and less.

* * *

"This will never happen again," Percy rasps around Nico's lips, but despite his words, he's drinking in Nico's scent and the feeling of his lips like a man dying of thirst who has finally found his oasis. Nico digs his hands into Percy's shaggy hair as they tumble into the low-quality bed in his cell. Nico ignores the scratchy sheets as they make quick work of the removal of their clothing and their nearly feverish touches.

* * *

No matter how many times Percy swears to the gods that it _won't _happen again, it does. He can't stop coming back for more of Nico that tastes like death and chocolate and feels like home, o at least the closest thing that he's felt in years. He can't stop because Nico's all that he's got and he's a lonely, sex-starved teenager. He doesn't want to _want _this anymore but he just can't stop.

* * *

"How long have I been here?" asks Percy one day, Nico's head cradled in his lap. Nico doesn't respond.

"Nico," Percy says, and his agitation leaks into his voice.

"I don't know," Nico replies.

Percy rolls his eyes and a resentment that goes far past irritation saturates his tone, "Don't lie to me, Nico. How much of my life have I already wasted down here?"

"I really don't know, Perc," Nico says, and Percy softens slightly at Nico's favorite term of endearment.

"Swear it," Percy whispers, _so I know you're not lying. _

"I swear on the Styx," Nico states, "I don't know how much time's has passed since you came here. But the last time I was on the surface, it was more than a year." When Nico is not turned into a smoldering pile of ashes, Percy's suspicion is pacified, but he doesn't seem pleased to know that he's been here more than a year.

"I guess you don't know what happened to Annabeth," states Percy in disappointment.

"I know that she's not dead," Nico says, though his disappointment at once again hearing her name shines clear in his tone, "I saw her a few months ago. She was alright then, and I haven't felt her soul pass yet."

"Have I ever told you how creepy that is?" asks Percy with a light laugh, "Cause that's hella creepy, man."

"Welcome to my life," Nico says, though not in bitterness, but in humor. He was glad that the subject was shifting away from such serious talk.

* * *

"Nico, one thing continues to confuse me," Percy says, and Nico isn't sure if his tone is mocking, malicious, or simply curious, "Is it really your father keeping me prisoner, or is it you?" Nico doesn't respond because he isn't fully sure that he knows the answer.

* * *

"I wonder where Luke's Achilles Spot was," Nico says one day. Personally, Percy's more concerned with the idea of the bastard still being alive out there, tormenting poor demigods, but whatever topic of conversation kept Nico happy was fine with him.

"It would have been somewhere fairly well concealed," Percy said, "Like mine, it's the small of my back. It must have been somewhere like, I dunno, his belly-button or the top of his head, or right by his elbow, where the two bits of armor meet."

"You told me where your Achilles Spot was," Nico states, and he seems intrigued and overjoyed.

"Yeah," Percy says like it's no big deal.

Nico smirks, "So you trust me."

"Well," Percy says, "I'm fairly sure that if you wanted to kill me, you'd have started trying a long time ago. And I wouldn't really go all that far, anyways. It wouldn't be much different." Nico kisses Percy hard on the mouth and they fall back into their old routine.

* * *

"I've actually gotten very good at raising the dead and sword fighting," says Nico one day, almost out of the blue.

Percy sends him an odd look, "Good for you." Nico frowns.

"Oh," Percy said, a burst of realization dawning on him, "I bet that your dad's happy."

He can see the ghost of a smile on Nico's face, "Yeah, he said that he was proud of my improvement. Proud of me." And his tiny smile widened to a true, genuine smile and he's flailing his arms about. Percy couldn't even bring himself to be sarcastic about his situation when Nico looks so happy because of his father's pride.

* * *

Nico frantically wakes Percy up one night (day, who knows in the Underworld) and says, "It's my birthday."

"Congrats," Percy said, burying himself back into his covers.

"My _sixteenth _birthday," Nico clarifies and Percy immediately knows what he means. It's prophecy day.

"Oh shit," Percy mutters, and then he says, "You need to get up there and save the world!"

"Not without you," Nico says.

"But- I'm allowed to leave?" Percy says, and his heart fills with hope, an emotion he hasn't felt in four years.

"I'm not my father," replies Nico, "And I'm not keeping you here any longer." Nico grabs him by the arm, and he feels the familiar sensation of Shadow Traveling.

* * *

Percy feels disoriented when the shadows subside, half, because he has only seen white walls and the Underworld's black and red hues for the past four years, and half because the sunlight is burning his eyes. New York looks much as it always has, though the sky has a dark gray haze, ominous and foreboding things to come. Percy finds it incredibly strange that there are no people hustling and bustling through the normally crowded streets.

"Where is everyone?" Percy asks cautiously.

"Gone," Nico says.

"As in dead?" Percy asks in complete panic, "Or just gone?"

"Gone as in _gone," _Nico says, "The city was evacuated years ago. The Titans took up camp here. Half-bloods have been fighting them here ever since."

"Is this where Annabeth is?" Percy asks, and Nico visibly stiffens.

"The last time that I checked," says Nico, his voice turning to poison. Percy's used to Nico when he gets like this, so he just follows him to wherever this demigod camp is.

* * *

When they walk into the camp, there is significantly less hustle and bustle than Percy had expected. Then he remembers the fact that these demigods have already been at war for four years, there must have been tons of causalities. He sadly wonders who makes up the ranks. He sees a few kids walking around in armor and tattered t-shirts.

Then, he sees a blonde head on the horizon, and she sees him too. She looks like she doesn't believe her eyes, but she starts walking towards them anyways. Then, it becomes a sprint. He feels like it would end in one of those cool slow-mow movie scenes with the romantic music where the two reunited lovers would embrace and everything would be peachy keen. That doesn't happen.

When she gets close enough to him, she socks him in the gut.

"Damnit," he curses under his breath as he felt pain consume the area.

"I thought," she says, her voice a breathless mixture of many emotions, surprise, disbelief, anger, resentment, joy and others that he couldn't place, "I thought you were dead, Percy."

She glares at Nico, "You knew the whole time! And, and you didn't tell me!"

"Where were you," she accuses, "Where were you all this time. We all needed you, Percy. I-" But the rest of her sentence died on her lips. They both knew what she was going to say.

"The Underworld," he says, his tone tinted with emotions that even he couldn't place. Her eyes flit from Percy to Nico and back again in confusion. Confusion is not a look that Percy has seen on her often.

"Hades kept me prisoner," Percy says, the first time that he'd spoken of his former situation since leaving.

She looks to Nico, seeming to understand a bit of what this meant but still asked, "And why did he let you go, why now?"

"It's my sixteenth," Nico says and then it hits Annabeth like a truck.

"Oh," she says, "Oh- we have preparations to make! We have to rally our demigods for a strike, _today! _This is our chance to end it!" Percy can see the gears turning in her head, the strategies she was concocting to try to turn the tide of the war. Percy had almost forgotten how much he loved Annabeth. Nico turned to follow Annabeth and Percy followed suit, though for a moment he was confused about whom he was actually following.

* * *

By the end of the day, Percy stands back to back with Nico and Annabeth, battling legions of monsters led by scores of titans as other demigods waged wars around them. Percy is a wild animal, Riptide an extension of his arm. He drowns monsters in the ocean, made it pluck them up and squash them like bugs. Nico summons battalions of the undead as Annabeth fights neck and neck with monsters with the sword she acquired during Percy's absence. She fights the way that she thinks, each blow smart, efficient and designed to kill. Most monsters go down in one to two blows of her sword.

What seemed like hours but might have been much shorter into the battle, Kronos appears on the scene. He still looks exactly like Luke, complete with his chissled good looks, sandy blonde hair and signature scar. The only difference is the armor and his molten gold eyes. Annabeth visibly stiffens beside him.

"I wonder if he still has the curse of Achilles," Nico mutters under his breath. Annabeth's eyebrows knit together like they always do when she's thinking, but close to coming up with a plan. Percy briefly wonders if Luke's still alive inside there at all. He weighs his options, and by weighing his options, Percy means that he made the rashest possible decision. He challengs Kronos to a swordfight.

"So, Kronos," Percy says, "It looks like you're still around, hiding out in Luke's skin. Is that because you had to steal it to become a better sword fighter?"

Kronos seems confused for a moment, and he seems not to understand the insult that Percy has dealt him. Percy tries again, "I bet that you're a terrible sword fighter, that's why you lost the first Titan War, isn't it? Because you're such a shit swordsman?" Percy thanks his father for his superb bullshitting skills because if he weren't good at it that wouldn't fallen flatter than it already did.

"How dare you insult me!" Kronos shouts, accenting his words with a strike to Percy's midsection. Even though it collides with Percy's lower arm it does nothing. He's starting to feel very, very thankful for his Curse of Achilles.

"What the fuck are you doing, Percy," Annabeth shouts, "Are you trying to get yourself killed." Nico glares at him from his perch summoning zombies.

"Nico," Percy says, "Remember when I told you that I trusted you." Percy is lucky that Nico pieces things together quickly, because he suddenly knows what Percy wants him to do.

"Annabeth," Percy hears Nico say, quite softly, "I need you to hold off the monsters. Percy's got a plan."

"Fantastic," Annabeth mutters, "Percy's plans always go so well." But Annabeth starts fighting double time, stabbing monsters left and right to defend Nico's now near helpless form.

"Your friends can't save you now, Percy Jackson," says Kronos, "You'll die today, like you should have long ago." Percy stabs at Kronos' stupid, ugly face, but his blow is blocked. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Nico setting up to summon the ghost of Luke Castellan and Percy is very glad that he is distracting Kronos, or they wouldn't stand a chance.

Fighting Kronos is like a weird, strenuous, exhausting and poorly correographed dance. Kronos is as unpredicatible as he is, shifting from offense to defense without breaking stride, and changing the style of his blows as it suits him. The titan's a fantastic swordsman, probably a lot better than Percy himself, but Percy doesn't have to beat him. Percy can't beat him, at least until he finds out his Achilles Spot. He just has to make sure that he doesn't die until Nico finds out that information. And suddenly, he sees Luke's ghostly form. Nico is conversing casually with him and Annabeth seems a mix of betrayed, overjoyed, and simply confused. Percy makes sure to quickly turn his head as to not draw the attention away from his own battle with Kronos. For a moment, he sees Nico's form behind Kronos and he immediately plunges his Stygian Iron sword into his elbow. But Kronos has quick reflexes, and he stabs his sword into Nico's chest.

"Fuck," Nico curses, clutching his chest. Kronos staggers to the ground, and Percy can see his life-force slipping from him. He's more concerned about Nico. Nico, whose black shirt has turned burgundy with blood and whose breaths are steadily getting faster and more strained. Percy wasn't sure what to do, so he takes the sword out of its position in Nico's side.

"Backbiter," he says, and it feels like a sick joke. Annabeth has made her way over without him even noticing as the discombobulated monsters try to regroup.

"_A hero's soul cursed blade shall reap_," she says softly, "The prophecy. Nico's the hero."

"Yay me," Nico says, and his bitter laugh sounds strangled. Percy wraps Nico up in his arms.

"I'll fight off the monsters," Annabeth says, giving them private time to say their goodbyes. Annabeth was awesome like that.

"You're not dying," Percy says, "There's got to be some other way." Percy takes the bottle of nectar out of his backpack.

"Drink," he says, pressing it to Nico's lips. Nico just shoves it away and laughs.

"Drink you idiot!" Percy shouts.

"This was always how it was going to end," Nico says, "I'm just glad I had you for a while."

"I love you, Perc," Nico says, and his body goes limp in Percy's arms a moment later. Percy doesn't know what to feel, because his feelings for this boy have always been a conflicted mess. But he feels tears forming at his eyelashes and he grabs Nico's body.

He doesn't know what he feels, and he doesn't know how he should react to this boy that contributed to his imprisonment, but was also his sole companion for four years. For this boy that he's come to love and loathe that died to save him. But he knows that he has to give Nico a proper, hero's burial. Because that's what he is to the world, even if Percy has no idea what he is to him.


End file.
